Friday, 30 March 2012

Over the quarter century I've been working as a freelance journalist I've experienced just three serious responses to my research investigations. One of them could at worst have seen me convicted of conspiracy, but it didn't.

The allegation was actually one of a number of attempts by a doctor I was investigating for various allegedly unethical medical practices to stop me continuing with my research. I'll set more of these attempts out in due course.

Let me say now that the allegation of conspiracy was completely without foundation and was thrown out by the magistrate at the first actual hearing.

The two other instances were long running and totally unexplained sequences of internet abuse by two linked individuals who for some reason took a dislike to the kind of investigative work I was undertaking. They both had genuinely suffered events that they wanted to publicise.

But it's not a good idea in my opinion to attack a freelance investigative journalist, they way they did, and to expect no counter-enquiries - which there were.